Orca have repeatedly slammed and attacked a boat amid a spate of attacks off the coast of Gibraltar.
Greg Blackburn, posting on the Orca Attack Reports Facebook page on May 3, said he had been northwest of Tangiers in Morocco when at least six orca appeared.
"They repeatedly slammed the hull and attacked the rudder," Blackburn wrote in the post.
Blackburn posted videos of the attack where the orca could be seen following the boat.
"[It] shows at least 6 individuals with one very large. that kept showing a small calf how to attack the rudder as can been seen in one of the clips," Blackburn said.
Once the orca left, Blackburn said the crew found "extensive damage to the rudder and 2 snapped helm chains."
This is just one of the attacks over in recent days.
Other people sailing off the coast of Gibraltar and Spain have reported attacks to their boats in the Orca Attack Reports Facebook group.
On April 29, Renaud De Stephanis said orca on the Strait of Gibraltar broke the rudder of a catamaran.
Dusan Zaharijevic also said on April 30 that there were "very hard attacks" by orca in the same area that carried on for "at least 15 hits."
Anke Birkhoff said in Barbate Bay, off the coast of Spain, on May 1 that two female orca bumped their rudder hard.
"A firecracker then scared them away, they never came back. Rowing cable destroyed, I haven't checked the rudder myself yet," Birkhoff wrote.
Orca attacks have been an ongoing problem off the Iberian coast in recent years. The animals have been targeting sailboats there since 2020. These encounters have ranged from orca simply approaching boats to actively interfering with them.
Scientists don't know why the orca are interfering with boats, but so far it looks like they are specifically targeting' rudders.
"Local scientists who have worked with killer whales in this region for more than two decades have had closer looks at incidents, and so far I think it is fair to say that we do not know why these accidents and attacks are happening," David Lusseau, professor of marine sustainability at the Technical University of Denmark, previously told Newsweek. "The individual whales seem to engage in the same pattern of attack, focusing on the rudder which can lead to the vessels being immobilized."
Orca are not usually aggressive towards humans, but they have been know to be playful. It is likely that they are following the boats as some sort of game. However, orca are huge animals and can measure 26 feet long, meaning they are capable of inflicting severe damage.
Orca in this area have been known to sink boats due to these interactions.
Do you have an animal or nature story to share with Newsweek? Do you have a question about orca attacks? Let us know via nature@newsweek.com.
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Robyn White is a Newsweek Nature Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on wildlife, science and the ... Read more
